Carl Leubsdorf: Is the GOP ready for a makeover?

Since November, Republicans have blamed their latest presidential defeat on Mitt Romney’s poor campaign, the technical wizardry of Barack Obama’s operatives and an unexpectedly large turnout of minorities.

Rather than changing their message or priorities, they’ve talked of upgrading their technical abilities and better selling their conservative philosophy.

As Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told last weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference, “We don’t need a new idea; the idea is America, and it still works.”

Now, a leading party figure and a five-member panel have challenged that status quo mentality by noting that the GOP needs to refurbish its image with an eye toward the country’s changing demographics, lest it be doomed in 2016 and beyond. Some conservatives promptly challenged both messages in what seems to be the latest round in an internal struggle destined to play out between now and the 2016 presidential campaign.

“Many voters are simply unwilling to choose our candidates because those voters feel unloved, unwanted and unwelcome in our party,” he said. “This means that we must move beyond the divisive and extraneous issues that currently define the public debate.”

Rather than espousing negativism that rejects increasing segments of the electorate, Bush said, “we need to be the party of inclusion and acceptance.”

Unsurprisingly, the predominantly conservative audience gave a tepid response to Bush, reserving more fervent reactions for the red meat remarks from Sarah Palin, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who won its presidential straw poll.

In a sense, Bush’s speech was the appetizer to the main course: National GOP chairman Reince Priebus rolled out a massive task force report Monday that analyzed November’s defeats and presented ways to counter them.

“Public perception of the party is at record lows,” it said. “Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents, and many minorities wrongly think that Republicans do not like them or want them in the country.”

Bluntly, it added, “We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue.”

While lacking specifics, the report urged Republicans to “be the champion of those who seek to climb the economic ladder of life” and take a stronger stand against “corporate malfeasance” and “corporate welfare.”

And it said, “Our candidates need to do a better job talking in normal, people-oriented terms, and we need to go to communities where Republicans do not normally go to listen and make our case.” While “we are not a policy committee,” it said, “among the steps Republicans take in the Hispanic community and beyond, we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform.”

The GOP report clearly recognized the potential damage among Hispanic Americans if Republicans stop an immigration bill from passing. But ultimately, the GOP must go beyond increasing outreach and helping pass a comprehensive immigration bill to also moderating its message in other areas.

Additionally, the report proposed changing the nominating process by shortening the season and replacing caucuses with primaries. That won’t be easy, since most changes require support of both parties and the states involved.

Some GOP conservatives immediately saw the proposal as aimed at grass-roots Republicans such as those who backed Texas Rep. Ron Paul in 2012 and who may support his son, Rand, in 2016.

Still, Bush and Priebus have given Republicans an initial guidepost toward developing a positive alternative to the conservatives’ status quo approach. But a GOP comeback will depend more on what key Republicans do in Congress, the 2014 midterm race and the 2016 presidential campaign.

Carl Leubsdorf is the former Washington Bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News and may be contacted at carl.p.leubsdorf@gmail.com.

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About Carl P. Leubsdorf

Having decided in college that being a reporter would be a lot more interesting than being a tax lawyer, Carl went to Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism and embarked on a journalistic career that so far has lasted from the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower to that of Barack Obama. Before becoming Washington Bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News in 1981, he apprenticed for 15 years at The Associated Press and five at The Baltimore Sun. After a crash course in Texanisms from the late Sam Attlesey, for many years the Political Writer of The News, and the late Jack DeVore, former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen's press secretary, he joined The News and spent 28 years presiding over what became one of the best regional bureaus in Washington, while also covering national politics and the White House. He also started writing the column which continues today, following his 2008 retirement as the paper's bureau chief, and has appeared every Thursday since March 1981. In 1982, he married Susan Page, now Washington Bureau chief of USA Today, whom he met on a John Connally campaign bus in 1980. They have two sons, Ben, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and Will, an aspiring political operative in Washington. Carl also has a son, Carl Jr., a computer whiz, and four stepchildren from his first marriage. Besides politics, he is a fervent sports fan, rooting with mixed success for baseball's New York Yankees and Washington Nationals; football's Washington Redskins; and waiting patiently for hockey's Washington Capitals to win their first Stanley Cup.

Hometown: New York City

Education: BA in Government from Cornell University. Phi Beta Kappa. MS in Journalism from Columbia University.